Shadow Paralysis Training - November 10, 2014
Participants Nara Ban Shadow Paralysis Training - It has been an hour since Ban arrived home from his hospital stay and has spent that whole hour doing simple stretches and drinking lots and lots of water. Since his return, Ban has went to the bathroom about a dozen times just to piss. It has reached that point where his urine was clear and that was a good sign; his body was clear of all that nasty food they were feeding him at the hospital. You'd expect them to serve you some nice textured oatmeal with just the right balance between milk and oats, but they just served him a sticky paste and let's not get started with the scrambled eggs. - "I think its time that I brew myself some tea and then head out to train for a couple of hours to recondition my body. 24 hours of laying in a hospital bed can really put you out of shape." - Although Ban wasn't physically strong nor fast, he kept himself in shape with cardio exercises and stretching, so that he can be on par stamina wise with his opponents and not have to suffer from a sore body after each spar or training routine. Ban's desire to keep himself cleansed and in shape really came from his father's teachings, who was always enforcing and praising Ban's physically achievements, unlike his mother, who was the complete opposite; She was more of an intellectual and really helped Ban become the person he is today. Ban was setting himself a pot of green tea over the stove, while staring outside through his window, watching the clouds weep as they usually did. - "One day I'll make it shine here in Ame... This rain can get really depressing sometimes, psychology has proven it." - He said to himself softly and settled the pot of water to boil at a medium heat. While the water boiled, Ban went to put on some clothes, but not his usual attire, simply because he was going to prep himself up first at home before heading out to train at the Training Grounds. - - Ban went to his room and slipped on some gray baggy sweatpants and a white tank top. - "Now where did I put my journal... Ah! There it is." - He said after scanning the room for a couple of seconds. Since he was out of his house for a day, he didn't really have that time to put everything in order and have his journal in its usual place; On top of the end table beside his bed. Ban walked into his closet and retrieved his journal that was laying on the floor under the drawer and shook his head a bit before dusting it off, even though there wasn't a speck of dust on it. His ears began to twitch at the sound of steam screeching from the kitchen and he went back into the kitchen to turn off the stove with haste. - "Just in time." - He said as he placed his journal onto the rounded dining table and retrieved a tea cup and a small plate to rest the cup on, as well as a packet of freshly picked green tea leaves his mother always leaves for him in the mornings, but since he wasn't around at the time, he didn't use them to brew along with his breakfast. He placed the plate down and the tea cup on top of it on the countertop beside the stove, whilst retrieving the put of boiled water with his free hand and pouring it just a few millimeters before filling the tea cup to the top. Ban would grind a couple of green tea leaves up with a grinder that was hanging on a shelf on the wall and sprinkled the ground green tea leaves into the boiled water and let it settle and brew for 2 minutes before straining it and taking a seat at the dining table. He took a small sip and placed the cup gently onto its plate. - "Let's begin." - - He'd open up his journal and flip through many pages before reaching the mid section of the journal that contained information on the Shadow Paralysis jutsu, he was currently studying. The pages on the jutsu were filled with diagrams, formulas, and even a table with information on its limitations. He began where he had left off previously, 'How to perform the Shadow Paralysis jutsu', and began to read to himself in a low tone. His mother had always told him that when he is studying or reading, that he should read outloud to help him better understand what he is reading. - "So I focus my chakra into my shadow, while weaving the hand seal for rat and then I should be able to freely manipulate my shadow as long as I have enough chakra and area to work with. Seems relatively simple." - He thought to himself a bit and reread the entire section on the Shadow Paralysis jutsu whilst finishing up his tea. Ban would close his journal and stuff it into his back pocket and get up to place the tea cup and plate into the sink. He'd rinse the cup and plate off and set them on a rag that laid on the countertop between the stove and sink to dry and went off into this room to change attire. - - Ban placed his journal on top of his end table and went into his closet to strip down to his underwear. He looked at himself in the mirror, realizing he didn't have any bruises from the spar he had with Aisu and his interest in why that was so, peaked. He walked over to his drawer and pulled out a couple of articles of clothing and rested them on top of the drawer. He took hold of the dark blue leg warmers and slipped into them and then into dark gray shorts with tattered cuffs that reached halfway down his thighs, exposing most of his leg warmers on purpose. He slipped on his white tank top and tucked it into his shorts. - "These leg warmers are quite comfortable..." - He thought to himself as he slid into an overhead beige sweater. Ban walked over to a row of mannequins he had lined up, each wearing a perfectly tailored trench coat to fit Ban's body. He selected one that contained about three different shades of brown, the lightest being around the shoulders and gradually getting darker towards the bottom. Ban shrugged his shoulders a bit to fit himself comfortably into the trench coat and then went over to a display case that contained his forehead protector, goggles and rebreather. First he put on his goggles, then his forehead protector and finally his rebreather. Ban made sure everything fit perfectly into place and then headed out of his closet to slip his feet into some sandals and tie his dreadlocks into an upright ponytail with a black rubber band laying on his end table. Once he was all suited up, he swiftly exited his house and headed towards the Training Grounds without stopping for anything. On the way out, he took hold of his backpack, slid into it and secured it with its straps around the chest and stomach; The backpack contained all of his weaponry, along with a scroll to minimize clutter within the backpack. - - As Ban arrived to the Training Grounds, he scanned the area and spotted a couple of other ninja training and hanging out with their friends. - "Perfect. I'll have live training dummies." - Ban walked into the Training Grounds and everyone shifted their eyes to him for a brief moment and began to chit chat and gossip amongst themselves. Oddly enough, a pair of girls were talking about Ban and how he was top in his class. Up in a tree was an older ninja, about to break out of his teens playing the harmonica and his pal jamming alongside him with an acoustic guitar. Ban really enjoyed the tone they were playing as he walked over to an empty section of the Training Grounds at the NE corner. Ban pulled gently on his ponytail and then proceeded to begin his training. Standing in front of him was a rack of polearms with its shadow being produced by a lit lamp post at the corner. Ban spread his feet apart about 3 feet and bent his knees slight, he went to clap his hands together, but before his palms could touch he would weave the hand seal for rat whilst focusing his chakra into this shadow. It was working, but not quite as he expected. His shadow was distorting and becoming wavy around the edges, but it wasn't doing anything other than that. Ban kept going with it, trying to see if he could manipulate the shadow to head in the direction of the shadow that was connected with the polearms resting on a rack, but he failed. - "Tch... I need to focus more." - He said to himself just ask the two musicians began to play a bit louder, or was it just Ban focusing on the sound of the harmonica. - - Ban reseted his stance and attempted to perform the technique again, but this time the results were more in his favor. The shadow was no longer wavy and began to extend outwards towards the shadow of the polearms, but it didn't extend further than 2 feet from Ban and the polearms were about 10 feet from him. Ban sat down on the grass with his legs crossed over one another and kept his hand in the hand seal for rat while concentrating his chakra into his shadow. The soothing melody of the harmonica was assisting Ban in his focus and helping him with his training. With his eyes closed and in a meditative state, Ban didn't realize that his shadow was moving around him in all sorts of ways, sort of like an octopus' legs as it travels along the sea floor. Ban eyed his eyes and glanced at this shadow and then to the polearms and as he predicted, his shadow darted towards the shadow of the polearms and merged together. Although Ban knew that trying to manipulate an object would require more skill in the jutsu, he was simply using its shadows to practice merging shadows. The real test was with one of the ninja that were at the Training Grounds. He stood up and dusted himself off whilst scanning the area for a potential lab rat. Surely enough, he spotted a smaller boy, probably in the Academy, practicing with his shuriken and missing the bullseye with every single toss. Ban kneeled down on his right knee and went to weave the rat hand seal whilst concentrating his chakra into his shadow. The shadow began its 10 yard journey, slowly dodging everything in its way and merging with the shadows of other objects to increase its own length and then suddenly merging with the shadow of the young boy. He was suddenly frozen solid and was beginning to panic, crying out for help, but everyone was busy in their own world to even bother. Ban began to reach for an invisible stack of shuriken that would be beside the young boy and twirl it around his index finger before leaping back and tossing the shuriken with enough strength to quickly hit the target and just as stated in his journal, whatever actions he performs, the person with their shadow linked to yours would do the same. The young boy mimicked Ban's actions and then Ban unlinked himself from the young boy's shadow. The boy began to smile and wipe his tears as the shuriken hit the bullseye. - "i don't know how I did that..." - Said the boy while Ban stalked him from a distance, a bit winded from performing the jutsu at such a distance. - "I've got to keep practicing with this, so it doesn't take such a toll on me in a spar." - He thought to himself as he stood up and stretched a bit before deciding to head to the mission board and check for any new requests. - Results Ban successfully performed the Shadow Paralysis jutsu on a person without them knowing and also notes that one successful use of the jutsu made him a bit winded, so he must keep practicing so that it doesn't take as much of a toll on him when in spars and missions.